Have you heard about this? I’ve noticed quite a few bloggers talking about it. The Jewel of Medina is a novel written by Sherry Jones. It’s about the life of Aisha, the third, and apparently favorite, wife of Muhammad. (IS there one right way to spell that name? Even my spellchecker shows three options).

Probably the most controversial part of the book stems from certain facts in Aisha’s life. Well, one fact in particular. She married Muhammad at a very young age.

Like seven or nine years young.

To us today, that is horribly offensive. However, it seems that simply *talking* about Muhammad and Aisha is even more offensive. This I simply don’t understand. Sherry Jones has written an historical NOVEL. People do understand, I hope, that a novel is considered a work of *fiction*? Do they raise this much fuss over novels written about everyone they deem a prophet?

Adam – Mark Twain wrote The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1904, 1906), which is apparently hilarious “Genesis-bashing”. I could also list Paradise Lost and I’m sure there are others.

Enoch – I’m not sure if Enoch, the Ethiopian: The Lost Prophet of the Bible: Greater Than Abraham, Holier Than Moses is a novel, but the title sounds … interesting. I mean, that could definitely be called dissing old Abe and Mo.

Noah – Now I know there’s at least one novel about Noah. I remember reading it years ago. The only part I can remember is that one of his sons couldn’t consummate his marriage to his wife, so they used the unicorn’s horn to …. help. And that’s why there are no more unicorns. Oh, and the novel graphically described women peeing in the fields. I’m not certain these are the only two memories that the author wished to leave me with, but I’ll admit I can’t even remember the name. It was NOT a nice book. Amazon isn’t any help. They don’t have it.

Abraham – Orson Scott Card has written a novel about Abraham’s wife, Sarah, as well as one about his daughter-in-law, Rebekah. Also Abraham, the Dreamer: An Erotic and Sacred Love Story is about the love story between Abraham and Hagar. Definitely non-canon stuff here.

Isaac – There are too many to count. In fact, there are books *about* books about Isaac, even though, as my husband pointed out to me, Isaac actually does very little.

Jacob – The Red Tent: A Novel immediately comes to mind. My own work in progress has Jacob as a major character.

Job – I’m baffled at Job being recognized as a prophet, since I’m pretty certain the book of Job has always been recognized as a work of fiction. This is sort of like someone three thousand years from now honoring Harry Potter as a prophet. At any rate, other than the original story of Job, there is also Job’s Wife: A Novel

Jethro – Wow … I never realized he was considered a prophet. He was Moses’ father-in-law, in case you were wondering. (I had to go look it up) At any rate, I’m sure he’s been protrayed in some of the MANY novels and movies about Moses, like the Ten Commandments – this is the one with Charlton Heston as Moses and Yule Brynner as Pharoah. The Moses Riddle questions whether or not Moses misrepresented the commandments. And then there’s Zipporah, Wife of Moses: A Novel.

Moses – See above.

This is crazy. Islam recognizes over 124,000 prophets, according to Wikipedia, and I’m not going through all of them. However, there are five who are considered to be of most importance: Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. I’ve already covered the first three.

Jesus – I don’t think many of us have to spend much time pondering before we come up with books and movies about Jesus. Jesus Christ Superstar: A Rock Opera (Paperback) comes to mind immediately, at least for me. There’s a wonderful lullaby that Mary sings to Jesus – Everything’s All Right – that I like to sing to my babies. Also, high on the list would be The Last Temptation of Christ. I remember fundamentalist Christians getting upset about those, but I do not remember the Muslims getting upset. Oh, and let’s not forget The Passion of the Christ. I’d link to it, but searching “passion of the Christ” brings up 567 search results, and I’m not prepared to slog through them all. There are more, and many don’t even pretend to Biblical accuracy – like Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. I read that synopsis in my I-Can’t-Believe-I’m-Reading-This pose, fingers of my left hand tucked under my chin with my baby finger over my lips.

A search for “Jesus Christ” in Amazon Books brings up 11,025 options. While many of those are serious works, it is safe to say that he has been a popular subject for fiction.

Muhammad – I can’t find any. It seems that novelists are scared by the death threats. That’s reasonable. However, since we freely novelize the lives of practically every other prophet and important person, why can people not write novels about Muhammad? I do not write this in order to criticize or say Muslims are bad. I simply don’t understand.